Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 41 (2002) pp. 3015-3019 |Next Article| |Table of Contents|
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Flexural Rigidity of a Single Microtubule
Toru Takasone,
Saulius Juodkazis,
Yuji Kawagishi,
Akira Yamaguchi,
Shigeki Matsuo,
Hitoshi Sakakibara1,
Haruto Nakayama1 and
Hiroaki Misawa
Department of Ecosystem Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokushima, Minami-josanjima, Tokushima 770, Japan
1 Kansai Advanced Research Center, Communications Research Laboratory, Kobe 651-2401, Japan
(Received May 21, 2001; accepted for publication February 4, 2002)
Microtubules, which are flexible biopolymers, can be used for nanotechnology applications (e.g., nano-actuator) as they have a rigidity similar to that of plexyglass and other plastic materials. The flexural rigidity, or bending stiffness, of microtubules was measured using a laser trapping technique and dark-field microscopy. One end of a microtubule rod was chemically bound to a glass microsphere, while the other end was bound to a silica glass substrate. Then, the microsphere was laser-trapped and manipulated to exert three different deformation modes on the microtubule. The values of flexural rigidity for these deformations were between 10-25 and 10-23 Nm2 as measured for the 5–25 µm length microtubules. The origin of the length dependence of the flexural rigidity of microtubules is discussed.
URL:
http://jjap.jsap.jp/link?JJAP/41/3015/
DOI: 10.1143/JJAP.41.3015
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